I recently broke down and bought a “new” 2006 Ford Fusion with about 45k miles on it. It’s a great car, roomy, fun to drive, and it looks pretty nice – even if I do need to fend off a little bitterness from the wifey. Buying a “new” car is something I’ve never really done. The car is black – not my favorite color due to its propensity to show dust easily, but the price was right. Now, I’ve bought hand-me-down family cars, but never from a dealer before. It was pretty nice, he took care of the taxes and title/registration transfer.

I ran into a problem on day #2 of ownership though – and here is your challange: find the flaw in my actions during the first 2 days of ownership.

I picked up the car on a Monday night, and drove it home (weeeeeee!). The next morning, I drive it into work (weeeeee!). I admired my car in the parking lot at work as I walked away from it. After work, I notice as I walk up to my car that my suspicions about the black color of the car exposing any and all dust were confirmed! Blast! Not to worry, there is a cheap automatic car wash on the way home so I can see her sparkle. I took her for a quick bath, and drove home.

I pulled into my driveway, and sure enough – she was sparkling! But wait…something was wrong. What was it?